


The drive

by floatingaway4



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Alex cursing, Domestic Fluff, Drabble, Established Relationship, Kidfic, M/M, whats new
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26068543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingaway4/pseuds/floatingaway4
Summary: About a year ago, when Alex had taken a promotion within the ACLU and they realized they weren’t going anywhere, Henry had started looking for a second house in the country.
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Comments: 18
Kudos: 144





	The drive

**Author's Note:**

> I’m about to nerd out about my writing; if you don’t care, feel free to skip to the **
> 
> So here’s a thing that might be weird. I write whole scenes that I never plan to put out in public, just for my own background information. Like if I need Alex and Henry to be somewhere, I might first write out a scene about them getting ready or the car ride there, knowing no one will ever read it. I LOVE digging around in those mundane details and it usually informs the mood of the rest of the story. Or maybe Henry or Alex will mention something from that missing section in passing...I like building up layers of their little domestic life. 
> 
> This was originally one of those things. But I kind of like it. And since my kidfic has been getting a lot of hits and posmens (™ Tina Fey) I thought some other people might actually enjoy it. If it’s not your cup of Earl Grey, no biggie. 
> 
> **TL;DR: here’s a kidfic drabble

Henry and Alex love raising their kids in the city, they really do. They love taking them to the museums and the parks. They love the variety of food they can find in grocery stores and bodegas and restaurants. They love the freedom they have in New York that they wouldn’t have in London. Both kids go to a good school and Alex and Henry are passionate about their work. 

But about a year ago, when Alex had taken a promotion within the ACLU and they realized they weren’t going anywhere, Henry had started looking for a second house in the country. He wanted a little more family time, outdoors, without photographers trailing their every step. 

_“Don’t you have homes, plural, in Wales, Wales?” Alex smirks at his own tired joke._

_Henry doesn’t even stop scrolling through real estate listings. “I’m glad you can still amuse yourself with that one, Diaz.”_

_At some point, early in their relationship, Henry adopted Alex’s parents’ habit of calling him by whichever last name most applied to the situation._

_Henry grins at Alex’s eyeroll. “And yes, I suppose we could get there for weekend trips, but I’d much rather drive a couple of hours than fly across the ocean, wouldn't you?”_

_“I don’t know,” Alex shrugged. “Jamie gets motion sickness either way,”_

_“No jet lag, though,” Henry reminds him._

_Alex leans over the back of the sofa and watches him skim the real estate listings. “Babe, how is an entire house with that much land the same price as this place?”_

_“Because ‘this place’ is in Brooklyn, darling.” Henry turns his head to grab a quick kiss and goes back to his search._

They ended up getting a cute older house, about two hours drive from the city, with a big backyard and a pool and privacy. Their security teams added more fencing but it still lets them feel like they’re sort of a normal family. 

They’re driving up one weekend and traffic, miraculously, hasn’t been all that heavy. Summer is technically over but it’s a gorgeous fall weekend. Ellie insisted on bringing her swimsuit and floaties, even though it might not be warm enough to go in. They had to negotiate to get her to take the floaties off during the car ride. Well, Henry tried to negotiate. Alex immediately resorted to telling her, “because I said so” and it worked like a charm, for once. 

Henry is driving the SUV and he and Alex are deep in a discussion about the city’s mayoral race. Alex keeps stabbing the buttons to change the radio station, only letting a song play for a few seconds before moving on to another one. After the fifth stab, Henry reaches over, slaps Alex’s hand away from the radio, and turns on NPR. On a commercial break, Alex reaches for the buttons again but Henry sees the movement out of the corner of his eye. He grabs Alex’s hand, kisses it, and holds it tightly on the center console. 

“Cheating bastard,” Alex tries to glare at him but just ends up smiling. 

Ellie and Jamie are watching a video in the backseat on the built in screens. Jamie has just started talking up a storm in the last couple of weeks, so he’s repeating almost every line of the movie and driving his sister crazy. 

“STOP IT!!!!” she finally screams. 

Henry glances at Alex in a silent request for him to deal with her. Alex twists around in his seat and pulls out his best dad voice. “Ellie, do not yell like that in this car.”

She points at her brother and continues to yell in a voice filled with the drama and emotion only small children can muster. “But he won’t stop saying what they’re saying and I can’t hear my MOVIE!!” she whines and kicks her feet against her seat. 

“I know and I’m sorry but your father needs to concentrate on driving and--”

A deer bolts across the road in front of them, causing Henry to slam on the brakes and Heimlich Alex with his seat belt. The odd angle he's at does nothing to help matters. 

“ _FUCK_!” Alex chokes out.

“Alex,” Henry warns. 

“Fuck!” Jamie repeats. 

“Oh, Christ,” Henry whispers, followed by a long-suffering sigh. 

Ellie is suspiciously quiet. 

Henry, now even more nervous about taking his eyes off the road, (because there’s never just ONE deer) still manages to shoot a smug, victorious smile at Alex. “I told you that would happen.” 

Alex turns his body forward to help Henry watch the road. “Shut up.” He rubs his temples and decides to ignore Jamie, reminding himself there’s no point in telling a two year old not to say something. The attention will only make them say it more. 

They both hear a little mischievous whisper from the backseat. “Jamie, say it again.” 

“Fuck!” Jamie yells. 

The same way Henry picks from Alex’s last names, he now picks from Ellie’s many names when she misbehaves. Alex absolutely knew his name was getting dragged into this one. 

“Elizabeth Windsor Claremont-Diaz!” Henry shouts, in a voice so commanding it startles even Alex. He glances over at Henry, impressed. 

Ellie, however, is not so impressed and collapses in a fit of giggles. Her brother, so delighted to be making her laugh rather than making her yell at him, says, “Fuck fuck fuck!” He bangs on the tray of his carseat each time for emphasis. 

Alex looks over to see Henry’s hands tight on the steering wheel. He also sees a muscle jump in Henry’s jaw and notices he’s shaking. For a moment he thinks Henry is angry, but quickly realizes he’s desperately trying to hold in laughter. 

“Don’t laugh,” Alex whispers, “or they’ll never stop.” 

Henry nods. Alex realizes he can’t even talk. 

Henry finally manages to hide a laugh in a fake cough, clears his throat, and says, “This is your doing, love.”

Alex doesn’t even argue with him. He turns and uses the only weapon he has at the moment. “Ellie, I will turn the movie off.” That’s more of a punishment for Henry and Alex than it is for the kids, but they don’t need to know that. 

His threat makes her settle down, at least, but Jamie keeps trying to get her attention. He waves his little hands in the air between them and says it a few more times, while Alex makes eye contact with Ellie and dares her to respond. 

He’s not proud of it. 

He cocks a warning eyebrow at her, then turns back around and rests his arm on the center console.

“Ja-,” she immediately tries. 

Without turning back around, Alex holds up the remote control for the video system in his left hand, thumb hovering over the power button. He eyes her in his mirror. 

Ellie closes her mouth, but does not look happy about it. 

On one of their first trips up, they’d discovered an old-fashioned general store in a little town on the way. They sell sandwiches and drinks and ice cream from the small front counter area. It’s a bit of a tourist trap, but the couple who run it are sweet and welcoming and get a kick out of playing with the kids. They also don’t seem to have any idea who Alex and Henry are, which is kind of refreshing. 

“Can we get ice cream?” Ellie asks. 

“Ice cream! Ice cream!” Jamie chants, his little lisp causing his r’s to sound like w’s. 

Henry looks in the rear view as he changes lanes. “I don’t know, have you been good?” 

He peeks at Ellie’s face in the mirror to see her thinking hard before he returns his eyes fully to the road. “Yes?” she replies hopefully. 

Henry smiles over at Alex. They’d already planned to stop, but it’s good to keep the kids on their toes. “What do you think, Papa? Should we stop?” 

Alex turns toward the back seat. Ellie looks a little anxious. 

“Let me think about it,” Alex says. He points at each of them. “But you two should be really good for the next few miles.” 

In the blissful quiet, Alex lays back against the headrest and watches Henry drive. He loves to watch Henry do anything with his hands. Play the piano, drive, touch Alex’s--

“You awake?” Henry asks. 

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Alex tells him. He runs a hand lightly over Henry's arm. “Just zoned out for a second.” 

They pull up to the store and their security follows right behind, one car in the parking lot, the other on the side of the road at the lot’s exit. One agent heads for the back while another gets out to go in with them, dressed in plain clothes. She could pass for a tourist if she looked like she was having any fun at all. She hovers just inside the door to the shop, since there are no other customers at the moment. 

Henry holds Ellie by the hand while she looks around the cluttered store at the baked goods, t-shirts, and camping supplies. Alex is carrying Jamie and trying to keep his hands from grabbing anything, especially anything breakable. Henry can hear the store owner making a fuss over him and prays Jamie doesn’t decide to show off his new vocabulary right now. 

The bells attached to the front door jingle as a mother and teenage daughter come in. The daughter is in the middle of complaining loudly, “I don’t care, I didn’t want to come on this stupid trip anyway.” 

Alex buys two cones for the kids and two cups of ice cream for him and Henry. Alex would prefer a cone, but Henry has forbidden him to lick an ice cream cone in public, at least around Henry. 

Ellie sees a rack of stuffed animals and bolts away from Henry to look at them. He catches up to her in one long step, grabbing her hand. “Elizabeth, you need to stay with us.” 

“I just wanted to look!” she whines. 

“Outside,” Alex calls to Henry across the store. Henry nods, and they both head for the cute little metal tables on the front porch. Alex gets to the door first, while Henry is still trying to drag Ellie away from the toy display. The agent says something into her cuff and moves closer to Henry. 

Henry can hear the mother buying sandwiches and asking for directions at the front counter. He tugs Ellie’s hand and reminds her that her ice cream is going to melt. As he turns, the teenage girl comes around the end of the aisle. She looks up at Henry and the annoyance in her face disappears, replaced by absolute shock. She stands there with her mouth hanging open. 

Henry grins. He's had a lifetime to get used to this type of reaction. “Hello.” He effortlessly swings Ellie into his arms and raises his chin toward the front of the store. “Are you two lost?” 

The girl just stands there, staring wordlessly. 

“Is she okay?” Ellie whispers to her father. 

“I think so, love,” he says in a normal voice. “I imagine she’s just tired.” 

The girl still hasn’t closed her mouth. 

“I”m Henry. What’s your name?” Henry tries.

“I...um…” 

“My name is Ellie,” Ellie says, as though she’s encouraging her. 

“Sara,” she finally manages. 

“Hello, Sara,” Henry says. 

“Hi,” Ellie says, as she leans her head on her dad’s shoulder and wiggles her fingers. 

The bell at the door jingles again. “Henry?” Alex calls, “You coming? I got my hands full out here.” 

Henry walks around a greeting card display until he can see Alex in the doorway. “We’re coming right now.” He turns back to Sara with an apologetic smile. “I have to go, but if you still need help with directions, we’ll be outside for a bit. We’re rather familiar with the area.” 

“You’re--you’re….” 

“Have a lovely day,” Henry tells her. Sara takes a couple of steps after them as they leave, then just stands there. Ellie is watching from over her dad’s shoulder. 

“I don’t think she’s okay, Daddy,” Ellie whispers as they walk away. Henry shushes her. 

They meet Alex in the doorway. “Finally,” Alex teases, elbowing Henry in the side as he passes him. “So, anyway…” Alex says, continuing a conversation they were having an hour ago, because he never got to finish making his point. 

Sara walks over to the counter where her mother is still trying to make sense of the map. “I’m so sorry,” the store owner is telling her, “the cell service is spotty out here. So many people get lost because their GPS stops working.” 

“Mom, I...he...they….” she points toward the door. 

“Not now, Sara,” her mother says, adjusting her glasses and staring at the little lines on the map. 

“They said they can help with directions,” she says, poking her mother’s shoulder and pointing toward the door again. 

“Oh, sure,” the owner says with a smile. “That’s the prince and his family. Such sweet boys. They have a house up here, they can probably help more than I can.”

The bell dings as another customer enters the store. As the door is closing, a high-pitched little voice drifts in from somewhere outside. 

“Fuck!” 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I like browsing real estate sites with Henry’s budget :-)


End file.
